When Friendship Followed Me Home Read Online Free PDF

he could come into the library, and nobody can give us dirty looks.”
    â€œYou mean like a Seeing Eye dog?”
    â€œExactly not. Are you blind? There’s this thing where kids who have a hard time reading, read to dogs. The dog doesn’t judge the kid when he mispronounces a word or whatever. The dog’s just completely psyched the kid is giving him all this attention. The kid feels like, whoa, this dog is totallylistening to me, I must be reading pretty great. The more confident the kid gets, the better he reads. I swear, it’s a real program. They do it in schools and libraries and jails and stuff. I think your little guy here could do it. Look at him listening to us. To me anyway. I talk a lot.”
    â€œReally?”
    â€œDo you mean ‘really’ as in, do I think your guy could do it, or really I talk a lot?”
    â€œThat he could do it.”
    â€œLiar. Your eyes are open too wide and you’re looking away.” Any guy who thinks he’s smarter than a girl is an idiot. But this girl was as smart as my mom, which was
totally
scary. “Read to Rufus, it’s called, where the dog listens to the kid,” she said. “I read about it in the education section of the paper. I’m going to be an English teacher by day and a novelist by night. You?”
    I shrugged. “Waterslide tester?”
    â€œThat’s the last thing I would’ve expected you or anybody to say. Okay, I am now officially falling in like with you. That is so freaking awesome. You are my hero.” I think that’s what she said. Things got fuzzy after
falling in like with you.
“Stop jackhammering your leg,” she said. “It’s spectacularly annoying.”
    â€œSorry.”
    â€œStop apologizing. Don’t feel compelled to say anything at all. I know, I’m bossy.”
    â€œI’m not saying anything at all.”
    â€œFlip,” she said. “That’s what you should call him.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œBecause that’s his name. Watch. Flip. See? He cocked his head.”
    â€œHe cocks it no matter what you say to him,” I said.
    â€œFlip Flip Flip Flip Flip.”
    The little dog licked the Rainbow Girl’s lips and she smiled the most awesome smile, like in the picture of Mom’s partner Laura. Not pushing it, just real. Then she pushed up from the bench and headed off. “Gotta go study. Dad’s dropping an algebra test on me first thing tomorrow morning.”
    â€œBeats what I have, a quiz on chapters one through five of
To Kill a
freaking
Mockingbird.”
    â€œWhat, you expect them to let you analyze
Starship Troopers
in English? At least you love
Feathers,
which means there’s hope for you. Look into the therapy dog certification. Maybe I’ll help you get that Read to Rufus thing going at the library. My mom would be totally into it.”
    We were backpedaling away from each other, and we had to shout now. “Hey, I’m sorry about your dog,” I said.
    â€œWe’re adopting a new one as soon as I’m a hundred and eleven percent.”
    â€œWhat’s your name anyway?”
    â€œHalley, like the comet.”
    â€œWow.”
    â€œYup.”
    â€œI’m, like, Ben, just so you know.”
    â€œI, like, know. Mom told me, plus it’s on your library card, duh.”
    â€œWhat’s it about, your novella?”
    She spun around once and skipped and smiled. “I don’t know you well enough to tell you yet!”
    â€œDoes that mean you’ll be at the library tomorrow after school?”
    â€œI have a doctor’s appointment! We look like idiots, hollering as we’re backing away from each other! You’re about to backpedal into an old man in a wheelchair! Ben?”
    â€œYeah?”
    â€œA hundred and eleven! That’s how many books I’m going to write! That’s how many years I’m going to live! Bye Flip!”
    I texted